Virtual Reality (VR) is an artificial environment constructed by a computer which permits the user to interact with that environment as if the user were actually immersed in the environment. Early VR devices permitted the user to see three dimensional (3D) depictions of an artificial environment and to move within that environment. Thus a VR flight simulator incorporating such a device would allow a user to see a 3D view of the ground, which changed both as the virtual aircraft passed over the virtual ground and as the user's eyes looked in different directions. What the user saw in such a simulator is what a pilot would see when actually flying an aircraft.
The reality of the VR environment was enhanced by the ability of a user to manipulate virtual objects within the virtual environment using hand motions and gestures. Special gloves and devices were developed which permitted the user to interact with the virtual objects within the virtual environment. In such a system the user typically saw an image of his or her hand within the virtual environment and was able to determine where in the virtual environment the user's hand was relative to the virtual object to be manipulated. Moving the glove or device resulted in a corresponding movement of the hand image in the virtual environment. Thus a user wearing the special gloves or using the special device would cause virtual objects to move, simply by moving the glove in such a way that the virtual object is touched by the image of the hand in the virtual environment.
The addition of force generators to the gloves or devices further enhanced the reality of VR by providing to the user with a tactual response to interacting with virtual objects within the virtual environment. For example a user moving such a force generation enhanced device in a direction such that the image of the device moved toward a virtual wall in the virtual environment, would experience a stopping force when the image of the device in the virtual environment collided with the virtual wall. Such tactual sensation creating devices, or haptic devices, thus provided a stimulus to another of the user's senses.
Although the early VR devices were oriented to providing realistic graphical interfaces, the progress in haptic VR devices has made it possible to define a haptic VR environment which may be completely independent of the graphical VR environment. As such, haptic VR environments may now be constructed which respond to manipulation by the user in the way that the early graphical VR environments responded to the visual actions of a user.
This ability to define a haptic VR space independently of a graphical, or other space, provides a greater degree of flexibility in the design and creation of such VR environments. The present invention seeks to further add to this flexibility.